


As Long as I Have You

by MrAudioDrama



Category: King Falls AM (Podcast)
Genre: A Long Needed Talk, Angst, Episode 100 Spoilers!!, Hurt/Comfort, I genuinely have not stopped thinking about the episode, Lily Wright Big Sister Energy, M/M, Mentions of Gaslighting, Sammy Stevens Needs a Hug, Sammy Stevens Support ‘Squad’
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-17
Updated: 2019-12-17
Packaged: 2021-02-25 21:01:30
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,922
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21831853
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MrAudioDrama/pseuds/MrAudioDrama
Summary: Lily Wright was an observant person, and she’d be lying if she claimed not to notice the way Sammy’s breath caught with every word ‘Jack’ Spoke, the way he refused to fight back. She’d be damned if she didnt get to the bottom of it, and if she can help him feel better in the process, that’s a bonus too.
Relationships: Sammy Stevens & Lily Wright, Sammy Stevens/Jack Wright
Comments: 3
Kudos: 120





	As Long as I Have You

Lily Wright knew her brother. She knew his cadence, his beliefs, his mannerisms. It’s why she knew that whoever, whatever, had been on the phone that night wasn’t him. Why then, nagged the back of her mind, could Sammy not see that?

She understood being emotional, she had wanted more than anything for that phone call to be him. But she knew her brother would never say those things. The Jack Wright who had begged her to move to California, who had called her every night for weeks after moving there even when she didnt answer, would never treat anyone that way.

So why?

Not only had Sammy believed that was Jack, he didn’t raise a word to his defense at Jack’s ridicule. No matter what she said, or what Ben and Emily said, Sammy wouldn’t break out of his stupor. He screamed after Jack until they shoved him in the car and drove away. 

From what she could gather, Sammy had rolled into town already bursting with emotional distress. Jack’s disappearance was hard on them all, but had he blamed himself for five whole years.

“You don’t know what that is” Jack told him, and Sammy had merely choked on his tears. Hadn’t attempted to refute it, to profess the love he’d held for Jack in his absence. 

“How many more people do you have to hurt” threatened the caller, and Sammy’s eyes transfixed themselves on nothing. His gaze went distant, the only words he could form were his fiance’s name. No matter what the fake Jack said, Sammy fought against them. Fought to stay with the voice of someone taking cruel shots at his self esteem. The Sammy she knew didn’t take shit from anybody, so why now?

Was it five years of missing Jack? A self deprecating streak leftover from a home life she’d never heard of? Or did something, god forbid, happen in California? She couldn’t believe that, or rather she didn’t want to. Jack Wright was a good man, Jack Wright believed in love. Jack Wright was not the man who spoke that night. 

In the aftermath, everyone was attempting to comfort Sammy. His man bun had been ripped out as he gripped at his hair in the car, his face stained with the fresh tears of a broken heart. By the time they arrived at a safe location Sammy’s gone vacant. Emotions clamped behind a flood of memories.

Lily knows that look, she’d only ever seen it on him once before. Jack had ushered her off mere seconds after, claiming too many people would overwhelm him. She could see what he meant as Sammy flinched away from Ben’s concerned words and Emily’s soft touches. He was overstimulated and emotionally exhausted, and she’d be damned if she let her brother-to-be suffer like this.

It isn’t easy, she learns, to shoo off a concerned Ben Arnold and Emily Potter. But after ten minutes of convincing she’s banished them to another room.

“Sammy?” She’d never really had to do anything like this before, “fuck, man, go easy on me here”

Only silence responded, but she understood, “That’s alright Stevens, just hang tight”

She guided him slowly to the sofa, and wrapped him in a blanket. Sitting down next to him unsurprisingly ended with him shoving himself into her arms, “That’s right, let it out” 

“Lil,” his voice was rough, “I just,” he tried, but his words devolved into soft sobs muffled by her shoulder. 

“Sammy, it’s okay,” she let her hand run through his hair, picking out the Bobby pins he missed in the car, “cry first, rationalize later, or some soft shit like that. I’m sure Ben would be better at this than I am”

His response to that is a shake of his head, and his hands tightening their grip around her. They stay like that for a while, and Lily won’t admit to it but she cries with him. Fake Jack or not, those were the first words she’d heard her brother say in years. To be tricked into forming hope, and then having it ripped away was a lot for any sister to go through. 

“Hey Sammy,” she whispers, because this is something she needs to know, “none of those things he said were true, you know that right?”

The pitiful noise she receives in response is disheartening to say the least, but goddamn it if she didn’t get to the bottom of this, she could hardly call herself a good journalist or a good friend. 

“Sammy,” her voice growing serious, “Sammy I need you to look at me,” her tone left no room for argument, so she watched him life his head. And oh, if it didn’t wreck her inside. His hair was a mess, his eyes red and puffy, his lip bleeding from the way he was biting it in the car. He looks absolutely destroyed, and she worries that this is how she left him when Jack disappeared initially. 

Is this the Sammy Stevens whose number she blocked because he wouldn’t stop calling? She feels rather foolish now, holding a grudge like that over his head in the wake of losing someone so precious to him. 

Jack’s words ring in her ears once again, “You don’t know what that is,” and her stomach drops. She had never been happy about Sammy and Jack running away together, and in one of the arguments she can hear her voice speaking without her permission. 

“You don’t know what love is Shotgun or else you wouldn’t be taking Jack away from me,” 

Sammy had recoiled at that, and if she were truly to pin the end of their friendship it would probably trace to there. He had continued begging her to come with them, but there was less energy behind it. A defeated look in his eye. It was said in the heat of the moment, and even then she’s sure she hadn’t meant it. She was, however, stubborn, and stuck by it until they were gone and it was too late to salvage. 

“None of what he said was true, do you hear me Stevens” her hands resting on his face, thumbs swiping away the tears, “You have always loved Jack Wright, I knew it from the moment we started our radio show to the moment I realized you were in King Falls”

He refuses to meet her eye, “Then why didn’t I believe him. If I had believed him, if I had gone with him, maybe he’d be sitting here with us right now,” 

“Sammy I’m not sure that would’ve changed anything. You did all you could, you loved him and you stayed by his side no matter how many times he pushed you away,” Lily’s voice was quiet but purposed as she leaned down to meet his eyes.

“I made him feel like he couldn’t trust me, Lil, I drove him away” 

“I listened to the May 1st broadcast you know. He never even left California Sammy. King Falls didn’t take him, the book did. Believing him might’ve taken you away from me too,” her words sparked something in Sammy, as his face twisted in thought. His eyes rose towards her, and a fresh round of tears began to form. 

“At least we’d be together,” the words spilled out and crashed into Lily like waves after a storm. What had happened to Sammy Stevens? Where was the larger than life Radio Host she had worked with all those years ago. Why was he so determined to be with Jack even if it meant being treated the way he was at the station. 

“Sammy? Do you really believe that was Jack on the line?” She returned to stroking his hair as she watched him grapple with what he’d just admitted.

“I have to,” Sammy’s voice was weak, and a crude smile graced his face, “He’s got every reason to be mad at me, to think I don’t love him. I sat around for five goddamn years and did nothing. I sat back and watched as my best friend did what I couldn’t in the span of a single year Lily. Isn’t he right?”

Lily didn’t really have any words for that specifically, not past the white hot rage burning through her veins at the thought of Sammy believing the things he was saying. She’d known he was at a low point when he attempted to throw himself into the void, it took him months to shake the depression. It hurt to know that he probably had never shaken it at all, and had sat there laughing with them while dying inside. 

“Sammy, he couldn’t be more wrong. You uprooted your life for this, you had no idea where he was. At least Ben knew about the Rainbow Lights! You poured your soul into the hopes that you could find Jack here, you couldn’t have known about the void. I couldn’t find him either and I’m Lily Wright” she proclaimed, sighing in relief when Sammy chuckled at her response. 

“I just miss him so much, Lil. Why is the void targeting me if that’s not really him?” Sammy sounded as shattered as Lily felt, but it only served to harden her resolve.

“Think about everything you know about Jack. Would he ever treat you that way? Would he ever threaten you, threaten me and the people you care about?” Sammy’s head had been migrated down to her lap at this point, as he processed her words. 

Sammy’s silence was deafening, “No,” his incredulous tone surprised her. “Lily! No he wouldn’t!” Joy creeped into his tone as laughter mixed with tears.

“Sammy?” Lily brushed his hair lightly out of his face with her fingers, “What’s going on there bud,” 

“Right before the end his attitude shifted. I was desperate to keep him from leaving, so we fought and bickered over it often. He got mean in the last week, claiming I never loved him, that people were going to get hurt if I didn’t listen. I begged him after that to seek help, that I couldn’t understand what he was saying,” Sammy explained, and that hit the final nail in the coffin. 

Sammy believed that was Jack, because Jack had said those things before, “But it wasnt him Lil! He was consumed by that notebook in the last week, it was the shadowmaker. The whole time it was just the shadowmaker,” Sammy’s laughs slowly turned into hysterics, as Lily pulled him up into a hug. 

“You’re a good man, Sammy. Don’t let the void gaslight you into throwing your life away. You got that?” Lily’s grip on Sammy was as tight as she could make it, she wasn’t going to lose another brother. 

“Hey Lily,” Sammy’s head rested easily buried into her neck, “I love you”

“I love you too, little brother” she joked, squeezing him in response to his squawk of disagreement. 

“I am not a little anything Lily Wright, just you wait until...” his protests faded off as Lily’s heart flooded in relief at his improved mood. They would sit down the next morning and have a proper talk, all four of them, about her fake brother. Sammy would speak about his insecurities and they would theorize on how the void knew to target them.

For now, though, Lily relished in lightly bickering with Sammy and falling asleep hugging the closest thing to family she has left.

“Just you wait Jack Wright” she thought, drifting off, “Your family’s not giving up without a fight”


End file.
